Rethinking Your Shipping Policy? Here’s How to Take Care of Customer Regret

I got them in and it turns out that they are half a size too big, so I immediately checked the shop’s return policy and to my surprise it turns out that I had to pay for the return shipping.

Since I felt a bit of regret coming up, I decided to email the owner of the store with the following proposition: “how awesome would it be if your postreturn customer spending would go up with at least 150%?”

He replied in 10 minutes.

How to Keep Customers Buying From YOU

I shared with the shop owner the importance of building an email list, especially including the people on it that pre-order products.

Then, I gave him the perfect growth hack for an online business selling products: send a helpful email telling a little bit more about the history of the brand and how to take care of their product.

Remind people of the following: If they are not 100% satisfied with their purchase, they can return it for FREE to get a full refund.

Let me explain.

How Regret Can STOP Future Purchases

Two researchers, Amanda Bower and James Maxham, conducted 2 real-life studies over a period of 4 years to see the consequences of paid and free returns.

They found that customers who paid for their own return decreased their postreturn spending at that retailer 75%–100% by the end of 2 years.

In contrast, returns that were free to the consumer resulted in postreturn customer spending that was 158%–457% of prereturn spending.